Coming into the season the play along the interior of the defense was a concern for me in ND taking that next step into becoming a good defense. I started a thread before the season kicked off, and one of my biggest concerns were tackles for loss, or the lack of. Negative plays on defense disrupts the momentum of an offense, just like a 10 yard holding penalty. We're not very big up front, and what you give up in size, you'd better make up for it in quickness, gap integrity, and beating blocks.
Lat year, the stats were pretty dismal in regards to making plays up front. Hinish ended the year with 4.5 TFL's and MTA ended up with 2.5. Hinish also added 1 sack and MTA a half sack.
Moving to 2020 through 8 games, Hinish has doubled his career output with 7 TFL's, and through 7 games, MTA has accounted for 4. Is this "Elite" production? Of course not, but my expectations were not for that kind of production, it was just at least doubling where you were from 2019, and both players are on target for that. I wasn't expecting the 2 of them to become sack machines either, but currently Hinish has improved in that category with 2, while MTA has 1.
What I didn't want to see happen in 2020 was for the interior of the D line to hurt us - especially against the run. If you look at their overall PFF grades this year Hinish grades out at 62.2 against the run and 68.7 against the pass.
MTA grades out at 62 against the run and 59.9 against the pass. These aren't staggering numbers, but keep in mind the people at PFF don't know what their exact assignment is on each play, so these numbers in my opinion will be skewed. The proof is in the opponent's rushing yards and that average has been cut in half from last year, and the yards per carry are are amongst the NCAA leaders.
You can't play with 2 DT's, and that was another concern coming into this season. There isn't anything spectacular about what PFF thinks of the backups as these stats suggest.
Ademiloa - Run 62 / Pass 59.9
Lacey - Run 65.8 / Pass 57.9
Cross - Run 77.9 / Pass 60.7
Mills - Run 58 / Pass 69.9
However, the stats also suggest no big drop-off when we are subbing into the 3 deep, and I think that's the most most important stat (the one I just made up) out there.
To summarize this whole mess that I put together, I would say that what's making the play better, and adding to the overall team defense, is an increase in big plays, and no significant drop-off from player 1 through 6, which is huge in my opinion, and it's something that a lot of teams can't boast about. All I hoped for this year, knowing the limitations that we have, was for this group to play solid, and at the moment it's exceeded my expectations.
Lat year, the stats were pretty dismal in regards to making plays up front. Hinish ended the year with 4.5 TFL's and MTA ended up with 2.5. Hinish also added 1 sack and MTA a half sack.
Moving to 2020 through 8 games, Hinish has doubled his career output with 7 TFL's, and through 7 games, MTA has accounted for 4. Is this "Elite" production? Of course not, but my expectations were not for that kind of production, it was just at least doubling where you were from 2019, and both players are on target for that. I wasn't expecting the 2 of them to become sack machines either, but currently Hinish has improved in that category with 2, while MTA has 1.
What I didn't want to see happen in 2020 was for the interior of the D line to hurt us - especially against the run. If you look at their overall PFF grades this year Hinish grades out at 62.2 against the run and 68.7 against the pass.
MTA grades out at 62 against the run and 59.9 against the pass. These aren't staggering numbers, but keep in mind the people at PFF don't know what their exact assignment is on each play, so these numbers in my opinion will be skewed. The proof is in the opponent's rushing yards and that average has been cut in half from last year, and the yards per carry are are amongst the NCAA leaders.
You can't play with 2 DT's, and that was another concern coming into this season. There isn't anything spectacular about what PFF thinks of the backups as these stats suggest.
Ademiloa - Run 62 / Pass 59.9
Lacey - Run 65.8 / Pass 57.9
Cross - Run 77.9 / Pass 60.7
Mills - Run 58 / Pass 69.9
However, the stats also suggest no big drop-off when we are subbing into the 3 deep, and I think that's the most most important stat (the one I just made up) out there.
To summarize this whole mess that I put together, I would say that what's making the play better, and adding to the overall team defense, is an increase in big plays, and no significant drop-off from player 1 through 6, which is huge in my opinion, and it's something that a lot of teams can't boast about. All I hoped for this year, knowing the limitations that we have, was for this group to play solid, and at the moment it's exceeded my expectations.
